Building Saddam Hussein's Bomb (original) (raw)
Magazine|Building Saddam Hussein's Bomb
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/08/magazine/building-saddam-hussein-s-bomb.html
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- March 8, 1992
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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March 8, 1992
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"About this big." high in the United Nations building in New York, a U.N. official is holding his arms out in a circle, like a man gripping a beach ball. "About a yard across, weighing about a ton."
This is the Iraqi bomb -- slightly smaller than the one dropped on Hiroshima, but nearly twice as powerful -- packing an explosive force of at least 20,000 tons of TNT. The official is dramatizing a drawing he has made in his notebook, based on documents seized in Iraq. He is sure that the bomb, if built to the specifications in the drawing, will work.
At the bomb's center is an explosive ball of weapon-grade uranium. Around this is a layer of natural uranium to boost the yield and a second layer of hardened iron to keep the core from blowing apart prematurely. If the bomb is to detonate properly, these parts must have just the right dimensions, and there must be a firing circuit accurate to billionths of a second. Documents in the United Nations' possession show that the Iraqis have all the right dimensions and the necessary firing circuit.
This is the bomb that, according to U.N. estimates, Saddam Hussein was 18 to 24 months from building when the gulf war started. It is the bomb he is still likely to build, despite the war and the most intrusive nuclear inspections in history, unless the United Nations changes its tactics.
"They are pouring concrete as we speak," says a U.N. official at the next desk. Saddam, he says, is rebuilding the bombed nuclear sites in plain view of U.N. inspectors. "He is even planting trees and re-landscaping," he adds, "to boost employee morale." Another U.N. official has a similar story. During a visit to the Iraqi nuclear weapon testing site at Al Atheer, he says, his Iraqi hosts looked him in the eye and said, "We are waiting for you to leave."
Since the inspections started last spring, the Iraqi disinformation specialists who serve as guides have done their best to outfox the inspectors. In one instance, the Iraqis hid reactor fuel by loading it on the back of a truck and driving it around the reactor site, always staying about 200 yards in front of the inspection team. The fuel contained weapon-grade material.
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